In a perfect world, analog to digital (ADC) and digital to analog (DAC) converters would have perfect linearity. Unfortunately, real-world converters do not have perfect linearity. This characteristic is seen in the finite quantization and precision of the devices. Conversion errors are usually specified as differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL).
The first level of quantization error, that of the smallest quanta, is often addressed with a small analog noise signal, known as dither, added to the signal of interest.
Errors due to integral nonlineanty (INL) produce spurious products in the digitized spectra, and amplitude errors for signals ranging over the input range of the ADC. In sub-ranging ADC architectures these errors show up as a repeating pattern in the INL vs digital output, which is particularly undesirable when low spurious performance is needed.
A larger amplitude dither signal is required to linearize this type of error. For such INL patterns, an analog dither signal with a uniform amplitude distribution is very desirable for linearization. An example waveform with a uniform amplitude distribution is a triangle wave. However, it is also important that the spectrum of the dither signal be limited so that dither components do not fall within the frequency bands of interest of the ADC application, or may be aliased into frequency bands of interest. It is also desirable that the dither spectrum not be discrete. A triangle wave contains odd harmonics of significant amplitude to tens (or hundreds) of times the fundamental frequency, easily extending into the band of interest, including aliased harmonics.
A sinusoid is spectrally contained, with a discrete spectrum, comprising only a fundamental frequency, but the probability density function (PDF) of a sinusoid is bathtub-shaped, with horns at the edges, as shown in FIG. 2. Such a PDF indicates that the signal spends the majority of its time near the peak magnitudes; this is not the desired uniform distribution.
What is needed is an analog dither signal which is spectrally contained, and tends towards a uniform amplitude distribution.